Deaf Again

Could you picture yourself growing up as in a world where everyone treated you differently or thought that you were stupid just because you are unable to hear? Well Mark Drolsbaugh experienced that first hand. He explains his story of how he dealt with his hearing loss in his novel Deaf Again. The book begins with a small child who could hear just fine, but as the story progresses he becomes hard of hearing and eventually deaf. All this happens with in a couple of years. Mark realized that he had a hearing problem in the first grade when he was presenting a toy for show and tell. Another student asked him a question about his item, but he was so far away Mark was unable to hear him. Mark's respond was a blank stare at the boy. The teacher took this as bad behavior and wrote a note to his parents, who are also deaf. The note said that she thought that Mark had a hearing problem. Mark's Grandfather sat down with him and told him to repeat a sentence, Mark did with no problem. Then Mark's Grandfather covered his mouth and said the same sentence. Mark was unable to do it. Mark found out he was reading peoples lips that hole time. Mark's Grandfather took him to the doctors to check what was wrong. The doctors said that he was deaf and wanted him to take speech classes so he could commutate in society. The doctors also told the parents not to use ASL in front of Mark. Mark went through many surgeries and tried many hearing aids. None of these worked. Mark's Grandfather had to move Mark to a different school because he was falling behind a Houston School. His Grandfather looked around at schools and finally found Plymonth Meeting Friends School. Mark didn't want to go because he thought that everyone would judge him and he was not ready for that big of a change. He went there for third grade all the way to sixth. The classrooms were small and it was more one on one. He did very well there, but then come the time to go to high school. Once again his Grandfather look around for High Schools similar to PMFS. He found a High School that was another Friends School called Germantown Friends School. Mark passed the test to get in to Germantown Friends School but the principle was unsure because he was deaf. But after a little while he proved that he was able to handle that environment. He got an interpreter to help him but by the time everything was translated it was too late. He was later to be the only Deaf